


On Halloween Night

by justcametosayhell0



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 06:35:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5118758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justcametosayhell0/pseuds/justcametosayhell0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which jos may temporarily be replaced in the test team but he will never be replaced in joe's heart</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Halloween Night

**Author's Note:**

> I swear the hardest thing about writing Joe/Jos is the one letter difference in the name it gets me every time.

Last year hadn't been anything like this.

Last year he remembers the energetic buzz of the room around him, laughter, yelling and music blaring out from every corner of the room. He remembers Jimmy's face when the lads presented him with a white top, King of Swing scrawled across it in Joe's messy handwriting and a joke shop crown to match. He still even remembers the supposedly scary mask which a tipsy Joe had put on backwards and defending his actions as intentional worn that way for the rest of the evening. 

'You know,' Jos had said to him as Joe stumbled stumbled towards the hotel bed, one arm slung casually around his shoulder but gripping him like a lifeline.

Joe flung himself onto the duvet and tugged it close around his body. Gazing up into his,  
Jos thought that despite his drunken state, Joe's eyes held a clarity that could pierce right into his soul.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Jos knelt down on the bed and crept dramatically close to Joe's ear.

'M'what,' Joe mumbled groggily from beneath the duvet.

Smiling to himself, Jos rolled away from the masked figure and began to tap his knuckles against the sideboard, feigning ignorance.

Sighing irritably, Joe flipped over so that the mask poked out of the duvet in his direction.

Jos ignored him.

'Josephhhh,' Joe mumbles from underneath the mask, trying and failing to hide the smile in his voice.

Jos turns his attention to the younger man glowering at him from the wrong side of a ghost mask and bursts into drunken laughter. 

'You know you really have to stop saying Joseph when you want me to take you seriously,' he stuttered between laughter. 'Could apply to either one of us.'

Joe groans in annoyance and flings his head down unceremoniously facing away from Jos. There follows some irritated mumbling into the pillow in a thick Yorkshire accent that Jos can't decipher but secretly finds adorable anyway (not that he'd ever admit this to Joe, of course).

'Was just going to say that you didn't convince me with the whole intentional back to front mask thing.'

'It wasssssss,' Joe sat up indignantly and gestured wildly at Jos as he slurred through his sentence. 'I told you, the mask cut into my fangs so I had to turn it...'

Jos cut him off mid sentence. 'Was it as unintentional and completely coincidental as our couple Halloween costumes?'

Beneath the mask, he swears he could sense the red glow from Joe's cheeks. 'I TOLD YOU that was just a joke. Broady showed me your Bella wig and I thought it was hilarious. That's the ONLY reason we had that conversation about how funny it would be if someone showed up as a vampire. And then that was the only mask the joke shop had left by the time the lads were through with it AND Cooky said he wouldn't let me into the party without a costume so...'

'And after all that planning you couldn't even wear the mask the right way round.' Jos shook his head in mock indignation. 'Thought you truly would be the Edward to my Bella Joe...' His body shook with laughter.

Joe attempted to ignore the older man, but within several seconds it all became to much. All exhaustion left his drunken body only to be replaced by adrenaline as he surged forward and shut Jos up by connecting their lips.

Not a Halloween to be forgotten so easily.

But this one? Jos just wanted it to be over already. Preferably the whole tour, honestly. He knew that any of the lads would say he was being ridiculous. 'Your still young,' Cooky had told him earlier that day after the fatal blow had been delivered. 'I know you have a long future in the test team Jos - you just need to find your confidence again.' And he knew all this was true and that in a few years time this event would be all but insignificant to him. But being selected to play for his country the sport that he loved above all else in the world was a feeling that he could never forget. He'd sworn to himself that he would take this opportunity of a lifetime and value every second and he'd been right - it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Especially Joe...Jos stopped. He'd told himself he wouldn't think about that anymore. What he had with Joe wasn't serious, at least not to him anyway. And with Jos gone from the team it was probably best for him to try and just completely forget everything, because honestly? There wasn't much hope for the future.

Jos sighed, closed his eyes and thought of how the night of the last test match he'd been lying there dreading the early morning get up. Ironic, now he couldn't think of anything he'd rather be doing. 

Footsteps echoed along the hallway. The door swung open and the blonde Yorkshireman entered the room, treading softly towards the figure of Jos slumped emotionless lay accross the beds. 

Jos didn't have time to say a word before he felt Joe's long arms loop around his collapsed frame. He'd always used to tease Joe about his lanky, disproportionated arms but right now they felt to him like the strongest muscles in the world. They must be, because they were holding him together whilst everything inside him seemed to be breaking apart.

(Again, not that he'd ever tell Joe that.)

Joe didn't speak, not for a long time and Jos was strangely grateful for the silence that he had loathed all evening. Unlike the previous seclusion, this silence was a comfortable silence where the pair of them seemed to understand each other without actually having to fill the air with conversation. 

Eventually though, it was broken. By a quiet whisper from Joe.

'I'll still be here you know. Just like always. Edward to my Bella and all that.'


End file.
